Paladin Online
by Narwhalcat
Summary: A book about a VRMMO with mecha.
1. Chapter 1

The Room was dark. The word Welcome lit up in bright blue letters as I looked up. The word welcome disappeared and were replaced with the words Please Proceed, accompanied by some arrows on the floor. The light of the arrow illuminated a tunnel ahead of me. I walked down the hall and sudden;y there was a blinding light. I covered my eyes with my arm until they became accustomed to the brightness. It was surprisingly realistic for a virtual reality game. I looked around. The room was extremely large and was bustling with life. The game master sent a private voice message to me saying; "Welcome to Paladin Online!" I smiled. I stepped into the room. Small shops and gambling were on both sides. From gameplay videos, i already knew what to do. I broke into a run. I took winding turns until I reached a branch off of the main room that had a bold heading of Armory printed in illuminated blue letters. I was out of breath. Then, I grinned from ear to ear. The armory was filled with Mechs. The main part of this game. I was out of breath so i went as fast as I could into the armory and started a dialogue with the NPC at the receptionist desk. "Welcome. Please acknowledge these new items in your inventory." I saw a notification on my right Light Recruit Mecha It had a boxy shape and didn't look like it had much defense. I sighed and tapped it. Materializing out of thin air was a mecha about 11 feet tall, not as tall as I expected. Well, it is the best I can get for free. It had no armaments all was on it were empty sockets. I hopped in. I tested the controls, pretty simple. A throttle for power and the rest of the controls were made by my mind. Some sort of new technology. the controls were a bit clunky, luckily I couldn't deal damage in the lobby. I began my walk out, occasionally stepping out to check a dealer. I had 5,000 credits, just about enough to get a simple starting weapon and some ammo. I settled on a small stand owned by a man and his family. I bought an assault rifle model with a dot sight and plenty of ammo. for 25 credits I also bought a cupcake from his daughter. It was surprisingly tasty. As I clunked towards the large door opposite from where I entered, I got a notification. An incoming call from: "Mom" I didn't need to answer to know what it was. Dinner time. I logged out of the game, and the screen went black.


	2. Chapter 2

Wow, that food was really good. I was glad I was able to get back into playing. I slipped on the headset, and hopped right back into it. I had used up all of my credits so I decided that it would be a good time to go and start playing. I swiveled in my mech, and found the exit. It was a large gaping hole, that I couldn't see through, but I knew it was the exit. I stomped towards it, careful no to smash any shopkeepers. As I continued, I found it easier to maneuver the mech and was able to not worry about smashing anything. Munching on my cupkae and moving the mech with one had, I headed towards the exit. I walked up towards the exit, took a deep breath, and walked into it. And the screen darkened. Damn the loading times are atrocious. When I got out, I was in a long ivory colored hallway with multiple rooms i could only assume wer for the tutorial. I ignored them and continued down the hallway, admiring the occaisonal porrtrait. I reached the exit of the hallway and stepped through. I loaded up into a large field. No enemies to be found. I continued to walk for 30 seconds or so, then i saw a message. "INCOMING MISSILES" Shit! I strafed to the right, just as the missiles passed me. They turned around, and i fired. It took 17 rounds to hit all 3 of the missiles. There were 30 rounds in each magazine. 13 shots left. I had one boost left, and the other one was a few seconds away from recharging. I took the chance. I strafed backwards and while doing so, turned to the right. There it was. It was a heavy mech, a bit like a tank, with treads, but less armored. It had a few missile silos mounted on the side, but what I was mainly worried about was its other armaments. I typed a command into the console and it scanned the other craft. The message said only missiles. "INCOMING MISSILES" Showed on my screen again. it hadn't had time to reload. I quickly spun around (as fast as the mech could turn at least) and saw 3 more of the craft. And 9 more missiles. If it took those 17 shots to take down 3 missiles, I wouldn't be able to take down 9 surely. I had to try though. I sprayed the rest of my mag. _Click_ _Click_. My magazine was empty. I drew back as the missiles were about to hit me. _Boom!_. I saw the explosion. But, I wasn't hurt. How? "Hey! Rookie! Watch out for these guys!" A voice called out. A girl? ( _OOC:Hehe)_ I strafed backwards and boosted to my left, where the voice rang out from. There it was. A mech with full body armor (while mine was basically me sitting on a machine) was laying behind a hill with a sleek red sniper rifle peeking over the top. The mech looked much akin to a Gundam and it was jet black. It wore a tattered cape that fluttered behind it. How had she taken out those missiles at once? was she that insane of a sniper? Back to the battle at hand. I ran to a large boulder. Since I knew they couldn't fire their missiles without a locked target, I was safe for that time. I held up my assault rifle right arm. I released the magazine and let it fall, pulled another one from behind me at my waist, and pushed it into the rife. I whacked a bullet into the chamber and got down on one knee. I peeked out the side of the rock and saw where they were. The one closest to me was dark green with a winged skull decal on the side that was facing me. That's right! This is the perfect time to use that! I grabbed yet another item from my belt. It was an attachment. I slid it onto my rail, and when I aimed down the sights, as if magically, it lit up and zoomed in. There was a small red chevron showing where the bullet would go. Should I aim for the cockpit? or the engine? The engine it is. I fired just as I heard another shot from who I could just assume was the sniper girl. The one in front of me exploded in a fury of orange-red flames. It was beautiful in a strange way. The one on the other end exploded from the sniper girl's bullet. Then another shot. So fast? It pierced the engine on one, and the cockpit on the last one. There is no way she is a rookie like me. I got up from my knee and walked over to the hill where the girl was. "Hey! Thanks for the backup." I said. She stopped looking through the scope nad turned to look at me. "No problem. Call me anytime if you need help or anything. I got a light yellow popup saying _Friend request recieved: KatPaw_ I tapped accept. "Hey!" She said. "Call me Kat."


	3. Chapter 3

"Uhm... You can call me Narwhal" I said, as Narwhal was my In-Game name.

"Will do... Narwhal" Kat said. She had just basically saved my in game life by coming to the rescue as a sniper. I held out a hand to help her up. She ignored it and got up on her own. Her mech stood taller than mine, jet black, with a tattered gray cape flowing behind it. It had a thin yellow outline around some sort of clear material on the head like part to make it look extra badass. Like I said before, She was almost definitely a pro.

"So, It seems you started what, 30 minutes ago?" she said.

"Umm more like an hour. I like to spend a lot of time shopping."

She laughed.

"just like my friends at school." she said.

"Yeah, well it's getting late, and I gotta go to school tomorrow so I better be logging off now." I said

"Alrighty. Maybe we can meet up later tomorrow and get you... a better mech other than that piece of trash."

I liked my mech. It worked at least.

Whatever. If it made me play better I wouldn't be opposed to it.

I tapped the log off button.

the screen faded black, and I lifted up my hand, and balled up a fist a couple times. I pulled off the helmet, and sat up in my bed. I ran my fingers through my hair, and got up to get ready for bed. Later, I laid in my bed, and fell asleep.

I woke up, and got ready for school really quickly. I hopped in the car and drove off to school. I was 16 just recently obtained my drivers license, my name was Christopher, but my friends called me Chris. I was about 5'6" with short messy black hair. I had brown eyes, and was a tad bit chubby.

As soon as I arrived at the school, I disembarked and went about my day, until the first time I saw my Twin friends Alex and Brian sitting at our usual lunch table. I sat don and eagerly told them about my experiences in Paladin Online the previous night.

I was one of the first in our friend group who could do his homework fast enough to be able to download games the night they came out. There were a few other "gamers" in the school, but they played stupid console games like Call of Duty Black ops 7 or some other shitty game like that. The gamers all sat at this table. Alex, Brian, Chris (another one), Shaun, and I. In total there were 5 of us.

"No way. Theres no way you met a pro girl gamer and she asked you to play again tonight." Brian said

"You are no type of attraction to a girl." His brother, Alex said chiming in

"I don't need 2 retards opinions." I said. WE insulted each other like this on a regular basis, but it was all just banter.

"I'll have the game downloaded by the time we get back home."

the other Chris said.

we just called him Wagner, because of me. They all called me Chris, because I was the one who met them all first, as Wagner was the newest in the group. Because of that we often called him Private Wagner.

"Same with me." Said Shaun.

"Damn it! how did you guys finish the homework so fast? Alex and I worked together and we didn't finish faster than you guys." Brian said.

"I guess the saying is 2 heads are better than one... unless both are dumb." Wagner said.

Alex clutched the spot where his heart was and feigned death.

We all burst out in laughter including the twins.

I handed my homework to Brian and Alex and allowed them to copy it, as they had math the next period, and judging by the multiple times their names had popped online and offline, they were trying to initiate the download while their parents weren't watching, but didn't get the chance to, and therefore weren't doing their homework.

I continued the rest of the day as normal, until that night when I was able to log on again.


End file.
